Monday, January 06, 2014

Fr. Lombardi: current debate over Papal comments on education “forced” and “manipulated”

The Director of the Holy See’s Press Office, Fr. Federico Lombardi has
issued an explanatory note following extensive debate in the Italian
media after the publication by the Jesuit journal Civiltà Cattolica of a
conversation between Pope Francis and religious superiors on November
29th. Many comments focused on gay unions. In his
note, Fr. Lombardi says in his conversation with the religious
superiors, the Pope took up the consideration that the situation in
which young people and children today are educated is very different
from the past because they live in many difficult family situations:
with separated parents, new “anomalous” unions, and "sometimes even
homosexual unions and so on."“Education and the proclamation of
faith,” notes Lombardi, “of course cannot ignore this reality and must
be attentive to the welfare of future generations, affectionately
accompanying them in their current context,” so that they will not react
negatively to the faith.Several Italian media reported on this very “general conversation on the educational role of the Church November 29th,”
comments Lombardi, who notes that only “in recent days” has the
question has been raised in the debate regarding the recognition of
civil unions of same-sex couples .The topic was quite obviously
“forced” Fr. Lombardi observes, “so as to appear in some cases as a
manipulation.” Speaking of an "openness to gay couples " is
paradoxical, Fr. Lombardi states, “because the Pope's speech is overall
general (in nature) and because even the small concrete example made by
the Pope about (a girl who is sad because her mother’s girlfriend does
not love her ) alludes to the suffering of children ...”The Pope
had “absolutely not expressed” his opinions on a debate that was
ignited in Italy one month later, Fr. Lombardi says, and “those who
remember the positions he expressed earlier in Argentina during similar
debates know that they were completely different from what some people
are now trying surreptitiously to attribute to him.”